Avatar Oneshots
by Leni
Summary: Zuko is the favorite, but I like Group Fiction in this fandom. Expect canon pairings, though - if I pair them at all.
1. Zuko & Ensemble

**DISCLAIMER:** See profile  
**WORDCOUNT:** 1572  
**RATING:** PG.  
**SUMMARY:** Spoilers for Book Three. The first day in the prince's new path.

_**A.N.:** I've watched the Spanish version and haven't read enough fanfiction to be sure of the terms. I did check Wikipedia, but if you find something out of the norm (ex: Earth Nation instead of Earth Kingdom), please tell me?_

_Written for **cornerofmadness** at April (sorta) Drabbling._

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**LEARNING THE BASICS  
**_by Leni_

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_His mother smiles as she watches him play in her private gardens He is collecting flowers for her, a fistful of lilies that'd blossomed that morning._

_"You are such a good boy, my child," his mother says as she accepts the gift, placing a soft hand on his shoulder._

_Zuko_….

…shakes away the stranger's grasp.

"No wonder he was exiled," a girl's voice pipes up. Not Azula, though the words could be hers. "They must have gotten tired of waiting on him on hands and feet."

The servants had liked him. His mother had never needed to ask them to bring his favorite dishes when he visited her apartments. Even if serving the future Fire Lord hadn't been an honor, Zuko is sure that they still would have liked him.

His hand fists and he thinks of sending a blast of fire in the girl's direction. His mother isn't here to frown at the show of temper.

"Katara…." A boy's voice, and this is a voice he recognizes from too many dreams where he brought the small boy in chains before his father, and was allowed to finally - oh finally - stay at home. The Avatar. "He is awake."

"I am," Zuko confirms, sitting up.

"Good!" He follows the sarcasm to its source. A little to the side, the other Water tribe child is glaring at him. "We decided it's your turn to collect firewood, seeing that you'll be having breakfast with us and all."

Angry words rush into Zuko's head. Denial. Anger. Show the boy some respect for those above him in power and station. His eye catches a flash of rock above head, and he is reminded that he climbed down those rocks to help the Avatar on his own will. He _will_ share all meals with this group or he'll go hungry, and after the months wandering the Earth Kingdom, the sheer pride and stubbornness necessary to follow the second option has been melted away. "Whatever," he snaps anyway, because most of him resists the thought that anyone (much less an untaught boy from the weakest people under the Fire Nation's control) has the right to assign his chores.

"I'll go with you," the Avatar offers.

Zuko wants to send him away, protest that he can do such a mindless task by himself. He's done it so many times, in fact, that Uncle Iroh had once remarked with a booming laugh that if they couldn't manage to open a tea house, at least they'd be able to make a living out of selling wood. "Suit yourself," he says instead, rising to his feet and gliding past the long-haired girl with the white blob of fluff on her shoulder. The blob eyes him warily, and jumps down and onto a shorter girl's lap - the Earthbender, if he isn't mistaken - when Zuko looks in its direction.

Zuko grins.

Good blob.

"Don't be afraid, Momo." The girl is blind, and yet she finds the spot between the pointy furry ears without a beat. "That mean boy is acting like a bully only because that's what he knows better."

"I'm not---"

It shouldn't be possible that the girl would fix him with a glare; but that's what it feels like as she raises her head and turns toward him. "You're on enemy camp, Sparky." Only the Avatar looks close to an objection; the other girl nods as her hand closes over her water pouch and her brother's smile sharpens. The blind girl taps the blob's (Momo's - he must learn their proper names now) nose, and Zuko has learned enough of body language to know that she isn't finished. She is too young for the expression she is wearing, and he has to hide a surprised reaction when the answer comes in his uncle's voice, _Aren't you all?_ "You should play with our good will as much as you were taught to play with fire," she says.

Not at all, then. A second later, Zuko wonders that this girl would know about the teachings of Firebending. It is knowledge reserved for those with the talent, and preserved in writings and scrolls too expensive for a commoner. Where would an Earth Kingdom girl hear about it?

A feminine scoff returns him to the matter at hand.

"Don't bother, Toph," the Avatar's girlfriend grumbles. "I still don't know why we do." She looks ready to continue, but a pleading glance from the little boy stops her.

"Because we're desperate," the brother says.

A very good summary of their situation, Zuko thinks, not without a hint of humor. Not even the Avatar, kind-hearted as he is, can deny that.

"We're hungry, too." The girl - _Toph_, Zuko amends to himself - rubs her belly. Momo mimics her and the sight would be enough to make him smile if he didn't feel the Water Tribe youngsters glaring at him, looking for an excuse to berate him again.

He is tired of people berating him. If only he could remind these children that he is a Master Bender, too. A quick flame, and….

"Hold your horses, Sparky." Toph looks at him knowingly.

The Waterbender's brother chuckles, and Zuko hears him whisper the nickname under his name, injecting it with as much mockery as possible. It will stick, then. At least, and never say that his life hasn't taught him that any small consolation is still a consolation, it's better than 'Zuzu'. Azula will thank him for leaving the heir's post to her, but that won't save him from her thunder. She is ruthless as he will never be, and she'll defend the selfish interests of the Fire Nation because somewhere since their childhood years, they became _her_ interests as well. Azula won't show any mercy, and he shudders at the thought of their next encounter.

He forces himself to concentrate on the present. One hurdle at a time. It will do him no good to worry about his sister's wrath if the Avatar's friends send him away now. "I thought you wanted breakfast."

Little Toph smirks. "I was thinking that some early morning fun was better. And since Sokka has been twitching to beat you since you woke up, I'll propose a bet."

His eyebrow raises at the acuity of her senses, and he is sure that she's picked on his amazement because her grin widens.

"A bet?" The Waterbender throws the other girl a skeptical glance.

"Yep!" Toph points between him and the dark-skinned boy with one hand. With the other, she keeps petting the lemur's back as if she didn't have a care in the world. The Earth Kingdom hasn't lost the war (yet?). Unlike the Water Tribes, especially the Southern ones, they retain their pride, along with most of their territory. Zuko can see how this affects the people from both lands as Toph smiles in his direction while the other girl won't even talk to him unless she must. "I say that the dispossessed royalty over there collects more firewood than you, Sokka."

"As if!" the boy - _Sokka_ - protests, standing straight and puffing his chest. "_I_ bet he gets lost if he goes on his own."

Zuko smirks. He was reading maps when most kids were learning how to write their names. For years, he charted the course of their hunt for the Avatar with Uncle Iroh as his sole counselor. "Want to put some coins behind your words?"

The boy flushes.

Right. Their funds must be low, with three kids and two animals to feed. "Or maybe you'll be willing to work it off," he adds before they can make a huge deal about how his people have forced them into poverty. "Say, a week doing my chores if I bring more branches?"

Sokka peers at him, trying to see if he's serious about following Toph's whim. "And you'll do mine if you lose?" he asks, an edge to his voice.

Zuko knows what the edge means. He learned all cadences of it while growing up with Azula, and he knows it only came up when she was trying to set a trap for him. "I will," he tells the boy, curious about his plan.

The Avatar bites his lip; but doesn't intervene. Zuko understands. If Mai was wearing the Waterbender's expression (it's not bloodthirsty, but it's the closest word he can think of), then he wouldn't _think_ of stepping in and interrupting her fun either.

"Two weeks, then," Sokka cries out, winking at his sister. The siblings nod at each other, sure of his defeat.

Zuko almost laughs aloud. If that is their idea of a devious plan, then it's no wonder that the Water Tribes succumbed after so little battle.

Immediately, he regrets the uncharitable thought. "One week only," he insists. Let them think that he's afraid; it's better than having to bear their complaints when he comes out the winner. 'You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,' Uncle Iroh used to say. These flies wouldn't come a mile around him if he was covered in honey, but maybe he can start by withholding the vinegar they've come to expect of him. "Ready?"

"Steady!" Sokka shouts.

Toph claps and jumps to her feet. "GO!"

Zuko knows that the other boy has dashed into the forest. He counts to three before following suit.

Let them think that he is too confident, too foolish, too soft-hearted. (Too much her mother's son.)

He'll prove them wrong.

He'll prove them _all_ wrong.

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**The End  
**25/05/09

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	2. MaiZuko

_**DISCLAIMER:** Still don't know who owns them.  
**WORDCOUNT:** 1106  
**RATING:** PG.  
**SUMMARY:** Zuko. Mai. And their version of compromise.  
be sure of the terms. I did check Wikipedia, but if you find something out of the norm (ex: Earth Nation instead of Earth Kingdom), please tell me?_

_Written for **cornerofmadness** at July Requests._

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**THE MEANING OF COMPROMISE  
**_by Leni_

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Fear was not allowed to Fire Lord Zuko. Neither was hesitation.

Caution, however, was a concept that any firebender worth their salt understood. The higher and brighter the flame, the more respect its master had to show towards it.

"Mai?"

Seated atop a small mountain of pillows, his wife made no response.

Zuko stifled a sigh, glad that he and Mai were alone in the room. Ty Lee had jumped to her feet when he appeared at the door, and after a quick look at her two old friends, the former circus performer had thrown her body into a complicated pirouette that ended in a small bow - a small, _neutral_ bow, Zuko had noticed. Moments like these, where Ty Lee knew better than to give an outward show of deference to either, reminded Zuko that the carefree girl had indeed been raised as Azula's companion in the intricacies of life at court.

"_Mai,_" he repeated, striding into the chamber.

Mai's fan fell onto the pillow.

He halted. There was only one reason for Mai to prefer that her hands were empty. In Zuko's opinion, their time in different sides of the battle had made him acquainted enough with her daggers. "We should be able to discuss this as adults."

She arched a skeptic eyebrow.

That was better. He'd held many a discussion with her eyebrows before. "It is only one meal." Zuko noticed her eyes starting to narrow, probably trying to choose a target. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't feel it was necessary for the continuing good will between the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes."

The fabric of his sleeve rustled for a moment, before a piece of it was shredded away.

The dagger's encounter with the wall behind him echoed in the room.

Zuko took a deep breath. In the five years since the reconstruction, Mai had been a very reasonable woman. She'd accepted that her father was to be pulled from his vantage position in foreign land and brought back to near anonymity in the capital. She'd pressed her lips tight, but nodded when he announced to his private circle that servants from other lands and their descendants would get the same wages as a Fire Nation purebred. She'd stopped all contact with those who backed Azula, even though those same people had been her closest acquaintances since childhood. She had allowed Toph's presence in her private dressing room before the wedding ceremony, as a nod to the new alliance between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom.

It had helped, Zuko had contemplated both then and now, that Toph's origins were of much more elevated status than what the girl's behavior suggested.

But the time for allowances seemed to be over. Mai had put her foot down, and despite all the messengers Zuko had sent to his wife, she still refused to break bread with a Water Tribe commoner during the harvest festivals.

Not before the eyes of the whole nation.

Not during the most important celebration in the land.

Her pride, she'd said calmly in her husband's rooms three days ago, did also have a limit. She'd stood beside the bed and, uncaring that her hair would be unbound when she left, had informed Zuko that if the Fire Lord had no care about what the people thought of his wife, the Fire Lord's wife didn't have such a liberty. Lady Ursa had had no followers and no friends to help her in her time of need, and Mai did not intend to follow his mother's steps.

_She_ was to be respected.

Zuko, open-mouthed and still holding a fistful of hairpins in his hand, had watched her leave.

Now, all his gifts returned and his pleas for reconciliation sent back with their seal unopened, Zuko was retorting to the best, and most tried, weapon in his arsenal: face-to-face confrontation. It'd served him well enough during his quest after the Avatar; how hard could it be to face the woman he loved?

The sharp arch of Mai's eyebrows was answer enough.

Zuko sidestepped the discourse he'd half prepared the last night, forgot about the imprecations of what a good wife should be like. "There's a solution."

Her eyes met his.

"We announce Aang's and Katara's betrothal at the beginning of the harvest season." Mai took that in, and when her mouth lost the straight line between her lips, Zuko knew that the repercussions had been noted. "That way you won't just be sitting next to a tribal chief's daughter, but also the Avatar's future wife."

"They'd do that?"

Zuko wasn't surprised at the question. Unlike he and Mai, Aang and Katara had decided to give their relationship more time to grow and mature before a public engagement. Their situation didn't require any drastic measures, unlike his own when he'd found himself lord and master of a nation and yet unable to stop the sudden river of feminine attention. Mai, he remembered with fondness, had kept her silence and watched the spectacle, until the night two ladies, both firstborns of equal-ranking army generals, had made a scene about whom the Fire Lord should ask for a dance first.

If he waited any longer, Ty Lee had enlightened him during a practice, bodies would start making their appearance around the palace. And, she'd laughed as she dodged a fireball, nobody would be surprised at the _shuriken_ daggers imbedded in them.

Two weeks later, he'd been married.

"They would," he answered. Once he'd made his decision, he'd even asked the couple first. Then he smiled. "In fact, I think Aang is happy to have a good excuse to speed things up. Now, Sokka may try an assassination attempt or two, but he'll get over it."

There, Mai's lips had twitched.

Zuko beamed in response and inched closer. This time, no unsaid threat stopped him. "So -" He sat next to her, trying to find balance on the soft pillows. "- does the new arrangement suffice?"

Mai gave a slow nod.

He scooted a bit closer, covered her hand with his. "And I'm forgiven for my shortsightedness?"

She nodded again.

"And you won't try to kill me again?"

Her eyes flew to his torn sleeve, and her fingers followed suit to examine the slashed silk. Instead of contrition, though, her hand fisted around the remains and her lips broke into a smile. "Not today." Her shoulders were no longer tense, her eyes soft and accepting. Her eyebrows had lowered into a find, reposed line, and her entire expression spoke of….

When she opened her mouth, Zuko covered it with his own.

He needed no translation.

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**The End  
**20/07/09

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